Victorinox SwissTool Spirit - Pliers Tips Misalignment

[MrVic]

Hey all,

I’ve just received a SwissTool Spirit and everything on it is perfect as you would expect from Victorinox, except for the tips of the pliers.

It may be a little OCD to question this, but I thought
I should, as you guys and gals on MTO have a crazy amount of knowledge.

The tips of the pliers, when closed, are very very slightly misaligned laterally. When closed the tips touch fully, but aren’t 100% aligned. It’s only a fraction of a millimetre, so it’s not really an issue, but I thought I’d check with you all if it’s normal, or if I should expect 100% flush alignment.

I don’t expect this to affect the use of the tool in any way. The handles are perfectly aligned, which I know is an issue for some of these Spirits. I guess I ask only because some of these Vic tools are works of art, and maybe I’ve come to expect a little too much art..

Any thoughts would be much appreciated 

[Vidar]

If we are talking fractions of a millimeter then mine is the same. It doesn't affect it any practical way, so I assume that is well within tolerance.

All manufactured products are off at some scale. There is never truly perfection, only degrees of closeness to perfect - and exponential costs to get ever closer. I assume Victorinox decided nobody would pay for non-important perfection, and so put down a tight and working tolerance instead.

That said some tools will be more off than others for a given feature - but with so many features on a multi-tool it is very unlikely to find a tool with near perfect measures all around on every feature.

Looking over some other multi-tools here they seem similar or worse. A Knipex flush electronics cutter is dang near perfect though. (Edit: I take that back - it is near perfect at one end but not the other - it seems it tapers somehow).

 

[Noa Isumi]

What Vidar says is true.
I spent more than a dozen years in manufacturing everything from wireing harnesses to PPE/rescue eqipment, much of that in quality control.  We always had a certain variance in size, dimensional shape and angle that was allowed and passable. These tolerance variations are noted at the bottom of every print.

For a usable tool I would say that is close to perfect. Anything more would probably have to be custom fit one at a time and cost several times as much.


Here is a look at how SAKs are made

[MrVic]

What Vidar says is true.
I spent more than a dozen years in manufacturing everything from wireing harnesses to PPE/rescue eqipment, much of that in quality control.  We always had a certain variance in size, dimensional shape and angle that was allowed and passable. These tolerance variations are noted at the bottom of every print.

For a usable tool I would say that is close to perfect. Anything more would probably have to be custom fit one at a time and cost several times as much.


Here is a look at how SAKs are made

If we are talking fractions of a millimeter then mine is the same. It doesn't affect it any practical way, so I assume that is well within tolerance.

All manufactured products are off at some scale. There is never truly perfection, only degrees of closeness to perfect - and exponential costs to get ever closer. I assume Victorinox decided nobody would pay for non-important perfection, and so put down a tight and working tolerance instead.

That said some tools will be more off than others for a given feature - but with so many features on a multi-tool it is very unlikely to find a tool with near perfect measures all around on every feature.

Looking over some other multi-tools here they seem similar or worse. A Knipex flush electronics cutter is dang near perfect though. (Edit: I take that back - it is near perfect at one end but not the other - it seems it tapers somehow).

 

Thanks Noa and Vidal, really appreciate your thoughts on that - especially in light of your experience 

[Sos24]

Cool video and thanks for sharing, Noa.

[MrVic]

What Vidar says is true.
I spent more than a dozen years in manufacturing everything from wireing harnesses to PPE/rescue eqipment, much of that in quality control.  We always had a certain variance in size, dimensional shape and angle that was allowed and passable. These tolerance variations are noted at the bottom of every print.

For a usable tool I would say that is close to perfect. Anything more would probably have to be custom fit one at a time and cost several times as much.


Here is a look at how SAKs are made

Thanks for the video link too! Really amazing to watch